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INTERVIEW WITH GUEST AUTHOR ELISABETH GRACE FOLEY |
REVIEW of The Silver Shawl
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Q: Tell us something about yourself, Elisabeth.
A: I’ve been an avid reader and a history buff my whole life, so that easily translated into writing historical fiction. I live in upstate New York with my parents, siblings and a couple of dogs, and when I’m not writing you’ll often find me spending time outdoors, crocheting, singing and listening to music, and watching football or old movies. |
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Q: What does your writing process look like?
A: When I come up with a story idea, I usually play around with it in my head for a while until I decide whether it’s good enough to develop. Then I scribble down lots of notes for it—character names, dialogue, rough outlines of scenes, et cetera. Once I have enough material to know where I’m going, I write my first drafts in college-ruled notebooks. I type them up on my laptop and edit as I go, and then do various rounds of editing on both paper and computer, getting feedback from family and beta-readers in between, until I’m finally satisfied with the story. |
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Q; How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?
A: Choosing names is one of the fun and easy parts of writing for me! I generally pick them according to how they look and sound, and how well they fit the character I’ve imagined. I keep a notebook with lists of names, both first names and surnames—anytime I see one I like, I just add it to the list for future reference. When I need to go hunting for a name, I’ve found this site helpful—some of the names are a little exotic for my genre, but there are tons there. |
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Q: Were you already a great writer? Have you always liked to write?
A: Well, I’d hesitate to apply the adjective “great” to myself in any circumstances. Looking back at my childhood attempts at writing (they’re pretty hilarious), I think I did have good writing skills for my age. But when I look at the first things I wrote as an adult, no, I was not a great or even an instantly good writer! I had so much to learn between there and where I am now, and of course I still have plenty more to learn. There’s always room for improvement. But I have always loved to write, practically ever since I learned how. |
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Q: What book do you wish you could have written?
A: All through reading Nine Coaches Waiting, I wished I could write as gorgeously and intriguingly as Mary Stewart. Q: If you had a superpower, what would it be? A: Time travel, of course! It’d be marvelous for research. |
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Q: What are you working on now? What is your next project?
A: I’m currently editing a full-length historical/western novel that I’ve been working on for several years. No timetable yet for when that will be finished. My next planned publication (hopefully this winter sometime) is the second novella in an informal series of fairytales retold as historical fiction. Corral Nocturne, a Cinderella retelling in a Western setting, was the first—I hadn’t planned to make a series of it, but then I had a few more ideas and I’ve been having a tremendous amount of fun plotting and writing them. |
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